5,980 public buildings to undergo quake integrity assessment

MANILA, Philippines — About 5,980 public buildings across the country are slated to undergo assessment for their structural integrity against strong earthquakes by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), officials told a Senate hearing yesterday.

During the hearing of the committee on public works chaired by Sen. Bong Revilla, DPWH Undersecretary Maximo Carvajal said the figure includes 4,000 public schools, 351 health facilities, 1,180 public buildings and 402 local government edifices.

He said in 2018, some P210 million was allocated for the assessment and retrofitting of 36 buildings. The following year, some P767 million was released for the retrofitting of 23 buildings. In 2020, P1 billion was spent for the strengthening of 51 buildings, while P200 million was disbursed for the retrofitting of 13 buildings.

Part of the funding, Carvajal said, was sourced from the $309-million Philippines Seismic Risk Reduction and Resilience Project of the World Bank.

Carvajal said the DPWH is currently putting up a building in Pampanga to serve as a command center in the event of a destructive tremor hitting Metro Manila.

The committee conducted the hearing to check on the DPWH’s efforts to enforce the compliance to the National Building Code.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, Senators Francis Tolentino, Raffy Tulfo, Ronald Dela Rosa and Revilla are pushing for amendments to the Building Code.

Revilla said the law is nearly 50 years old and may already be obsolete and unresponsive to the increasing strength of earthquakes.

The move to amend the law was supported by architect and urban planner Felino Palafox, Jr., who also lamented that corruption is one reason for shoddy or unsafe public structures, where as much as 30 percent of the budget goes to bribes.

Tolentino, who used to chair the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), stressed that additional evacuation areas are needed as the population and infrastructure within the National Capital Region have multiplied in the past years and would possibly mean more casualties and damage if a strong earthquake rocks the nation’s capital.

Based on the study conducted by MMDA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2004, many structures in the greater Manila Area would not be able to withstand the possible catastrophic destruction that can be brought by The Big One.